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December 17, 2009

Oakland A’s fans queasy that their storied team could be lured south to San Jose have a new best friend –- San Francisco’s top litigator.

Today City Attorney Dennis Herrera wrote to Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig, advising him in a six-page “sternly-worded letter,” as his press release calls it, that San Francisco is not pleased by the notion of another franchise moving into Giants territory.

Herrera made it clear that San Francisco is interested in protecting the millions of dollars in rent and tax revenues generated by the Giants franchise, and he walked Selig through the promises San Francisco had to make to keep the Giants in town and build AT&T Park, all with the understanding that major league baseball wouldn’t do anything to undercut the financial viability of the franchise.

June 16, 2009

Akin Gump has recruited longtime Pillsbury partner Patrick Marshall to join its San Francisco office as a partner in its American Indian law and policy practice.

Chambers and Partners ranks Akin Gump as one of four top firms in the country in American Indian law, a practice area Marshall says is growing in this state.

“With the explosion of Indian gaming in California and elsewhere, tribes are also moving toward a diversification of their business beyond gaming,” Marshall said. “And there’s been a great need of the tribes for top legal help.”

Gambling: It’s big … plus an upbeat new office MP for Pillsbury, after the jump …

May 18, 2009

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman waited a long time to announce whether it's first-years would be starting on time in September or, like so many other firms' new crop of associates, be delayed for some months. On Friday, the Shark reported that Pillsbury was indeed delaying start dates, and that some associates will be waiting a lot longer than they might've expected.

Conversely, other associates-to-be can take a mid-five-figure severance from a job they've never actually had, and just go away forever. This strikes me as a good deal. I have been not working at Pillsbury my entire professional life and they haven't paid me a dime for it.

Read the story at the Shark, and also check out our companion blog's legendarily despair-inducing listing of pretty much every firm's program to terrify and anxietize graduating law students.

May 04, 2009

Morrison & Foerster is deferring 40 percent of its fall associate class until April 2010, according to a firm statement. The other 60 percent will start this year, Nov. 2.

MoFo’s deal is a mixed bag. Those who start in April get $5,000 a month for doing nothing until they join the firm. Or, they all have the option to defer for 10 months if they work for a nonprofit, with an additional $15,000 for doing so.

Speaking of deferrals, we still haven’t heard from Pillsbury on their fall class. A firm spokeswoman said last week they just haven’t decided yet (Update: ... and told us Tuesday morning there's no new info). We tried asking again Monday, but it was pretty late, and we haven’t heard back yet. Kinda makes us wonder what's up over there. If you know, our tip line is open.

February 19, 2009

All aboard, and leave your wits (and any sense of decorum) at the door!

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman confirmed Thursday it will conduct layoffs in the near future after the legal blog Above the Law reported an anonymous tipster’s detailed description of a loud cell phone conversation between senior managers regarding the reductions.

The call apparently took place between Bob Robbins, head of the Corporate and Securities practice, and COO Rick Donaldson. Robbins apparently named names of 15 to 20 attorneys who should be laid off in four offices by the end of March.
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Pillsbury issued this statement to The Recorder/Legal Pad on Thursday morning:

“It is an unfortunate fact in today’s economy that no business or law firm can rule out adjustments to their overall workforce levels. This includes Pillsbury, and among other cost cutting measures, we will be implementing reductions to assure that our resources are aligned with our business needs. We apologize for the unfortunate manner in which our deliberations about reductions have become public.”

Robbins unknowingly confirmed to ATL that he was on the 2 p.m. Amtrak express from D.C. to New York on Wednesday, the same train as the tipster.

“I was on the 2:00 train this afternoon. Do I know you? Did you find something I had left?” Robbins responded to an email sent from ATL under a pseudonym. We also called Robbins’ D.C. office this morning and were told he’s unavailable … he’s in New York today.

Pillsbury’s Web site was inaccessible for some of the morning, but it was unclear whether that was related to the blog item, which linked to profiles of Robbins and Donaldson.